In a bid to spur economic growth, the then Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti liberalised Sunday trading in 2012, despite pressure from the Roman Catholic Church and unions who said the country needed to keep its traditional day of rest.

For those who do not believe that this can happen, I would simply add that the Eastern Orthodox have a prophecy that various Sabbath-keepers will be publicly executed and the time period is supposed to be when the “Great Monarch” rises up:

Blessed Hieronymus Agathaghelos (1279): And lo, an evil assembly of the crafty leader, dressed in black mourning apparel…those who were taking in a most hypocritical manner the most holy name of Christ…those were the most filthy citizens of Pentapolis…these are semi-godless men…they will have to pay the price before the public executioner of the Sabbatians. (Tzima Otto, H. The Great Monarch and WWIII in Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Scriptural Prophecies. Verenika Press, Rock City (SC), 2000, pp. 134,135,240).

Historically, the sun-god worshiping Roman Emperor Constantine ended up making the first Sunday law. Constantine decreed circa March 7, 321:

Let all judges, the people of cities, and those employed in all trades, remain quiet on the Holy Day of Sunday. Persons residing in the country, however, can freely and lawfully proceed with the cultivation of the fields; as it frequently happens that the sowing of grain or the planting of vines cannot be deferred to a more suitable day, and by making concessions to Heaven the advantage of the time may be lost (Code of Justinian, Book III, Title XII, III. THE JUSTINIAN CODE FROM THE CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS. Translated from the original Latin by Samuel P. Scott. Central Trust Company, Cincinnati, 1932).

Shortly after the above decree, Eusebius recorded this about Constantine:

Accordingly he enjoined on all the subjects of the Roman empire to observe the Lord’s day, as a day of rest (Eusebius. Life of Constantine, Book IV, Chapter 18).

Notice that “the Lord’s day” became enjoined by a decree of a Roman Empire. Also notice the following:

The bolded quote shows one of the first official intertwinings of European politics and Catholic doctrine. This is where the Sunday “tradition” for Europe basically came from.

Despite the fact that he was not baptized nor ordained, the influence of the sun-god worshiping Emperor Constantine (who declared himself a bishop), was highly significant:

So prominent had Christians and their day become that when the Emperor Constantine proclaimed Sun Day as the weekly holy day for all Romans, some Christians believed that it was for their sake. More likely Constantine, like many Roman aristocrats of the time, was simply trying to find common ground for his mixed pagan and Christian subjects, especially his soldiers. Unity was for the good of the state and the emperors’ power (Harline C. Sunday: A History of the First Day from Babylonia to the Super Bowl. Doubleday, NY, 2007, p. 17).

However, after a time, Constantine did clearly begin to provide more favor to the Roman version of Christianity which (like the pagans, but unlike the Church of God) endorsed Sunday. He, the sun-worshiping emperor (see Do You Practice Mithraism?), then called for the famous Council of Nicaea, which took place in 325 A.D. This council decided that Sunday was to be the day of worship and that Passover was to be observed on Sunday (and that eventually became what is known as Easter). After that council, those in the Church of God who kept the Sabbath were considered to be heretics and outcasts and had to flee to the wilderness.

He is known as Constantine the Great by the Roman and Eastern Orthodox Catholics for legalizing and essentially mandating their compromised faith throughout the Roman Empire. Other doctrinal compromises occurred because of him and afterwards. It has also been reported that only two years before claiming to see a cross in the sky, Constantine saw an apparition of the sun god Sol in a grove of Apollo in Gaul in 310 (discussed in Rodgers, Barbara S. “Constantine’s Pagan Vision,” Byzantion, vol. 50, 1980, pp. 259–78). This should give all pause to realize that Constantine had a history of apparent demonic contact, but most have overlooked this.

Those martyrs, over a thousand years ago, were killed BECAUSE they would not worship the Church, conform to its idolatry and pagan beliefs and customs, or worship the so-called “Holy Roman Empire,”—and BECAUSE they refused to receive the MARK of the beast!…

Those who receive the plagues are breakers of God’s Commandments, and also at the same time receivers of the MARK! It becomes more and more plain that the mark of the beast represents COMMANDMENT-BREAKING…idolatry…Some worship idols carved out of stone, or wood, or marble…The Sabbath was made FOR MAN. So said Jesus (Mark 2:27). It was made WHEN man was made (Genesis 2:1-3). It was MADE—and it was Christ, the Eternal, who made it! Therefore HE is Lord of the Sabbath! It was made to keep man in the true knowledge of the IDENTITY of the true God, to keep him from idolatry!…

It was Constantine, Emperor of the Roman Empire, not a pope, who made SUNDAY the official so-called “Christian day of rest.” But it was enforced — people were caused to accept it universally — by the CHURCH! …

This is the ONLY COMMANDMENT which was altered by the Roman Empire! In Daniel 7:25 we read the prophecy of this “BEAST” and the little horn (papacy) rising up, which was to think to CHANGE “times and laws.” That is, change God’s LAW in respect to TIME the time for the Sabbath! …

Now the “beast,” in association with the Church, used FORCE to brand the western world with their MARK. Those who obeyed God and kept His Sabbath were martyred. They were unable to “buy or sell.” But God does not force anyone. God lets us make our own decision about obeying Him, accepting Christ, and becoming His obedient children. …

The Church did cause all under the “Holy Roman Empire” to receive this “mark,” during the middle ages. Has she stopped? Just at present she has not the POWER to enforce this mark on everyone. But there will be a United States of EUROPE … It will be a UNION of Church and State — and the Church once again will sit astride “The BEAST.” (Armstrong HW. The Mark of the Beast. 1952, booklet)

“Here is the patience of the saints; here are they…” now these do not have the mark of the beast, “…that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” On the one hand, are those who have the name of God in their forehead, and when it comes to work and things, they have the commandments of God. And one of those commandments tells you what day you can’t use your hands in work. And that day is the Sabbath day. It has SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD!…

Now, they are going to compel disobedience to God…they’re not going to compel you to commit adultery…they might to worship idols and they might not, they won’t compel you to use profanity. But I’ll tell you what they will compel you to do, to observe Sunday instead of the Sabbath. (Armstrong HW. The Mark of the Beast. Sermon Transcript 28-Dec-1982; Alternately dated 11-Dec-1982)

We are seeing more Sunday laws. Furthermore, there will again be prohibitions against keeping the seventh-day Sabbath by a coming European leader.

As many realize, it is not just Church of God writers, but Seventh-day Adventists who have also warned about this (though the SDAs tend to point to the USA instead of Europe).

Of course, the Greco-Roman-Protestants keep some version of Sunday. Yet, even some of their own translations of the New Testament show that the seventh-day Sabbath is to be kept by Christians:

3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.'” And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. 4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.” 5 And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.” 6 It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience…9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience (Hebrews 4:3-6,9-11, NIV).

3 However, we who have faith are entering into that rest, even as God said: As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest. And yet, the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 Somewhere [else], God said this about the seventh day: God rested on the seventh day from all his works. … 9 There must still be, then, a Sabbath rest for God’s people, 10 and anyone who has entered into his rest has also rested from his [own] works, just as God did. 11 Therefore, let us do our utmost to enter into that rest, for fear that anyone should fall according to the same pattern of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:3-4, 9-11. THE EASTERN / GREEK ORTHODOX BIBLE NEW TESTAMENT. The EOB New Testament is presented in memory of Archbishop Vsevolod of Scopelos † 2007)

3 For we, that have believed, shall enter into their rest; as he said: As I sware in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: and truly the works from the foundation of the world being perfected. 4 For he said in a certain place of the seventh day thus: And God rested the seventh day from all his works…9 Therefore there is left a sabbatisme for the people of God. 10 For he that is entered into his rest, the same also hath rested from his works, as God did from his. 11 Let us hasten therefore to enter into that rest; lest any man fall into the same example of incredulity. (Hebrews 4:3-4, 9-11, The Original and True Rheims New Testament of Anno Domini 1582)

This clearly shows that the command to keep the seventh day Sabbath is in the New Testament. And that is why Paul observed it. It also shows that only those who will not observe it because of their disobedience argue otherwise. Even Origen of Alexandria understood some of what Paul wrote above as he wrote:

But what is the feast of the Sabbath except that which the apostle speaks, “There remaineth therefore a Sabbatism,” that is, the observance of the Sabbath, by the people of God…let us see how the Sabbath ought to be observed by a Christian. On the Sabbath-day all worldly labors ought to be abstained from…give yourselves up to spiritual exercises, repairing to church, attending to sacred reading and instruction…this is the observance of the Christian Sabbath (Translated from Origen’s Opera 2, Paris, 1733, Andrews J.N. in History of the Sabbath, 3rd editon, 1887. Reprint Teach Services, Brushton (NY), 1998, pp. 324-325).

Actually, it is those that keep the Ten Commandments in the time of the end that are the only true Christians:

17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 12:17)

12 Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. (Revelation 14:12).

The Bible shows that the coming ‘Beasts’ will use economic pressure, persecutions, and executions to enforce the mark of Beast:

14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. 15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666. (Revelation 13:14-18).

For those who do not believe that this type of persecution can happen, I would simply add that the Eastern Orthodox have a prophecy that various Sabbath-keepers will be publicly executed and the time period is supposed to be when the “Great Monarch” rises up:

Blessed Hieronymus Agathaghelos (1279): And lo, an evil assembly of the crafty leader, dressed in black mourning apparel…those who were taking in a most hypocritical manner the most holy name of Christ…those were the most filthy citizens of Pentapolis…these are semi-godless men…they will have to pay the price before the public executioner of the Sabbatians. (Tzima Otto, H. The Great Monarch and WWIII in Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Scriptural Prophecies. Verenika Press, Rock City (SC), 2000, pp. 134,135,240).